New John Lee Hooker Centennial Box Set Features Unreleased Music

A new box set celebrating the career of blues legend John Lee Hooker will be released September 29th. The new collection, King of the Boogie, was announced August 22nd, on what would have been Hooker’s 100th birthday.

The new five-disc set features Hooker’s greatest hits as well as a selection of rarities, live performances and several previously unreleased tracks. Those include three studio offerings – “Unfriendly Woman,” “When I Lay My Burden Down” and “Meat Shakes On Her Bone” – as well as live renditions of “She’s Gone,” “It Serves Me Right to Suffer,” “Boom Boom,” “Hi-Heel Sneakers” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” Disc five of the collection boasts a slew of collaborations with artists like Eric Clapton, George Thorogood, Santana and B.B. King.

King of the Boogie also comes with a 56-page book featuring an array of photographs and new liner notes from writer and blues historian, Jas Obrecht, and Hooker’s longtime manager and friend, Mike Kappus.

Box set producer Mason Williams curated the music selection on King of the Boogie. On the task of selecting tunes from Hooker’s massive catalog, Williams said, “Even at 100 songs, this set is just a snapshot of John Lee Hooker’s incredible and influential career, but one that takes you on the long journey he took from his early days in Detroit, to his time in Chicago recording for Vee-Jay Records and up through his later collaborations with Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and Santana, among others.”

Along with the announcement of the box set, a new exhibition celebrating Hooker’s centennial opens Tuesday at the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi. The exhibit will feature photos, performance outfits, guitars, awards and music. The exhibit will be on display through February 2018 before moving to the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.